


A World of Light and Colour

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Homophobia, M/M, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-01 10:11:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8620456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: When a human's eyes meet those of their soulmate's, they see in colour for the first time. Charlie, colourblind his whole life, never imagined that the Doctor had dropped him into the right place and time.





	1. Discovery

It was only after a few days (or possibly only one, or maybe a week- time travelled oddly in the TARDIS) that the subject of Charlie's complete lack of colour vision had been brought to the Doctor's attention. He'd been trying to get Charlie to pass him a red screwdriver- very important it wasn't the blue one, apparently- in order to fix some odd little mechanical squirrel, and Charlie had been flummoxed.

"Sorry," he said. "I can't see the difference between red and blue." Or any colours, really. But it sounded less wrong when he presented it as just a couple of colours.

The Doctor had given him an odd look and shrugged it off, and then a little while later had asked for the gold screws, not the silver ones or the bronze ones, and once again Charlie had been stuck. Now it would be out in the open that everything was black and white. But then again...maybe the Doctor could help. He could do so much, surely fixing Charlie's vision wasn't beyond his expertise. 

"I, um, I can't see the difference," he said. He felt so stupid. The Doctor should be getting Quill to do this, honestly. She could see properly.

"Nothing at all?" The Doctor frowned once again- he did that a lot- and stood up, leaving his mechanical squirrel on his workbench. He took out his strange device and pointed it at Charlie, taking stock of the slight change in noise it made when he moved it close to Charlie's eyes.

"I thought you Rhodians didn't have this soulmate thing," the Doctor said, peering closer at his eyes. Charlie managed to hold back a wince at the mention of his late people.

"This what thing?" It was Charlie's turn to frown, now. "We don't have anything like that. No one else at home- I mean, no one else on Rhodia was colourblind like me."

"It's a human thing," he said, waving the light in his eyes again. "They say they have people they're 'destined' to be with. Fate. Bunch of rubbish if you ask me, but there's a little science behind it."

"What does it have to do with being colourblind?" He tapped his foot impatiently on the floor. The Doctor was a fountain of knowledge, but first you had to get through the rambling.

"They say that when you meet the person you're destined to be with forever, you see the world as it's meant to be," he said. "Rubbish, if you're asking my opinion." Charlie didn't want to point out that the Doctor had said it already, only moments before.

"Wait." Charlie blinked, trying to make sense of this all. "Are you saying that there's someone on a Earth who I'm destined to be with?" He shook his head. That couldn't be right. That just didn't make any sense. He was Rhodian. If everything hadn't happened as it had, he would have remained on Rhodia, colourblind, for his whole life. He agreed with the Doctor: it was a silly idea.

"Possibly. Possibly not. You might just be colourblind. But it's worth a shot, isn't it? Earth's a nice place, I'll drop you and your friend off there and you can see if you find anyone who makes your eyes all better."

"That doesn't make any sense," he said. The Doctor could drop him anywhere in time and space, which meant that he could end up three hundred years ahead of any potential 'soulmate' and in entirely the wrong area of the planet.

"Humans don't make any sense," the Doctor said with a shrug. "You get used to it after a while, trust me...you'll adapt just fine."

"I object to being dropped onto an unfamiliar planet," he said, and the Doctor just tutted at him.

"You won't get anywhere if you speak like that," he said.

"That's the point! I don't want to get anywhere," Charlie said with a huff, and the Doctor gave him a frankly rather scary sort of look. The sort of look that suggested he'd be dropped into deep space if he kept complaining. So he didn't complain anymore. Perhaps Earth wouldn't be so bad, if there was a chance that he could get his vision sorted out.

So the Doctor took him and Quill to Earth and set them up with a refreshingly boring and ordinary life. Charlie sort of liked it. Earth was different to everything he'd ever known, but it still felt welcoming most of the time. Humans, on the other hand, were thoroughly confusing. Backwards in some ways, and oddly so much more progressive in others. But Charlie would try to get his head around that as well.

-

On what his new phone told him was a Monday morning, Charlie was woken up by Quill shouting at him through the door. Not the best way to start the day, but it did its job. He was up, and apparently ready to go to school. Or college, technically. But the college was also a school. He didn't understand Earth education. All Rhodians were privately educated for much of their lives because being in a classroom with peers was distracting. Surely humans understood that?

Apparently not, though. Coal Hill Academy was massive, there was no denying that. There were a lot of younger children running around in uniforms, and a smaller number of people his age dressed in plain clothes. He'd tried to be relatively smart, which seemed now like it might have been a mistake. He'd stopped only just short of a suit, and that definitely looked like a mistake. No one else was even wearing a shirt, which was what passed for smart among humans. He didn't understand why they wore trousers all the time, but he'd even worn those.

Quill had gone in even earlier than he had, something about last minute training for her new job. As Charlie's teacher. Souls, this was not going to go well.

He was unsure of where to go, but he had a map and the number of a room. Maybe he could ask one of the other people in plain clothes who didn't look lost. He had no idea where to go. After a couple more minutes of wandering, he came across a dark-haired girl who had smiled brightly at him as he'd walked into the building a little earlier. She seemed nice enough.

"Hello!" She said with a smile. "I don't know you, are you new?" He nodded with a nervous smile of his own back. He hadn't spoken to anyone except Quill for over a week now.

"My name's April! Do you need help finding your class?" Charlie nodded again, and she took his map from him and frowned at it for a moment. "Oh, the blue block- you're in Physics, with me. Come on!" Physics. That was something he knew he could do, which was why he'd chosen it. It was also the subject Quill was going to teach, and she'd told him to take it so she could check up on him so the Ahn didn't bother her.

It was only as they were halfway through walking that Charlie realised something. April had said that Physics was in 'the blue block', which did rather imply that she could see in colour. Did she have a soulmate? He felt like it was rude to ask, though, so he didn't say anything. It seemed a bit strange to colour code the map and timetable, though, if no one was able to read it unless they had a soulmate. To him, they all looked like pretty much the same shade of what he thought was called grey.

The Physics classroom was almost empty- clearly, it was quite early. Not even Quill was here yet, just a couple of students sat at the back on their phones. "Here we are," she said. "You're pretty quiet, but it's okay to be nervous on your first day. What's your name?"

"Charlie," he said, managing a smile. "Technically, Charles Smith." Introducing oneself by one's full name was customary on Rhodia, and he just hoped that it was the same on Earth. He hadn't had enough time to absorb much of their culture yet.

April smiled at him, so hopefully he hadn't messed up too badly. "My surname's MacLean," she said. "You're not from London, are you?"

"No, I'm from, ah, Sheffield." Again, something the Doctor had told him to say. Apparently everyone would believe that- he'd made a slightly odd comment about Sheffield being as strange as an alien planet that Charlie hadn't fully understood.

"Oh, so you moved here!" She said with a smile. "I've lived in London for about half of my life now. And I've been at Coal Hill for years."

"Mhm." Charlie felt like he should probably follow that vague noise up with a question, or more information, but he had no idea what to say, honestly.

April just laughed. "It's not a very interesting life," she said. "Maybe a little more will happen at college. I don't know."

"Maybe..." Charlie would prefer that not a lot happened at all, honestly. He'd had quite enough of drama and war and death to last him a lifetime.

"You're shy, aren't you?" April looked at him a little closer. "I'm sorry if I'm bothering you." He shook his head quickly; it wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her, he just didn't know how.

"You're not bothering me at all," he assured her, and that seemed to help a little. More people were flooding into the classroom, now, as well as Quill- Miss Quill, Charlie supposed he should be calling her- and that effectively put an end to his and April's conversation.

"Wonderful for everyone to join us on such a typically dismal day," Quill said, her usual sarcastic tone not at all dampened by the prospect of spending a morning with human teenagers. "I would say good morning, but no one really thinks that, do they?"

There was a muted ripple of nervous laughter from around the room, as if no one was quite sure if their new Physics teacher was being entirely serious or not. Charlie glanced behind him, gaze scanning all the newcomers to the room. He scanned the whole crowd, and then his gaze met with the boy sitting one seat behind and one to the right of him. Charlie blinked, and suddenly everything looked very different.


	2. Finding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie realises what has happened. Matteusz does too, but he's not happy about it.

It took Charlie a couple of seconds to register the difference in the world, in fact. The boy he'd locked eyes with apparently had no such difficulty- he stood straight up, almost knocking his chair over, and said something that sounded like a swear word in a language that wasn't English.

Charlie took a deep breath. He'd thought it was a myth. He'd thought he had no chance at healing his eyes ever. He'd thought...he'd been wrong.

"Excuse me," the boy said. There was something wrong in his voice. He sounded upset. There was something wrong. This boy who'd just caused everything to explode in colour then left the room without another word.

Charlie looked around, and everyone was staring at him. Even Quill was staring at him, although her expression was more bored than shocked. He didn't know what to do, but he knew he couldn't just sit here.

He raised his hand to ask to leave, knowing he couldn't just run away like the other boy had. He'd never hear the end of it from Quill if he did that. "No," she snapped, "you may not leave." Charlie lowered his hand and glared at her. She knew that he couldn't exercise his control over her in school, and she seemed determined to take advantage of that fact.

The rest of the class burst into discussion. "Miss, you can't do that!" Someone called from next to him. "His soulmate just ran away from him!"

Quill raised her hands, casting a glare around the room, and the discussion stopped. "I can do what I want. Charles can catch up with that silly boy later, after he's finished here."

Charlie wanted to jump up and leave and just ignore her. He wanted to find that boy and talk to him and maybe find out what he was called, even. Why he had run. But instead he just looked down at his watch, waiting for the time to count down to the end of the session. He couldn't focus on a single thing Quill was saying, and every second was a struggle against the temptation to just run out of the door and find the boy who had just changed his life so dramatically.

He had to stop himself from looking at everything in the room. Colours were so...bright. He didn't know the names of anything, but he could wonder what everything was called. Were the walls red? Green? What colour would Quill's hair be called? He had a set of artist's pencils at home with each colour labelled in tiny print on the side- he would need to take them all and compare then to what he was seeing, figure out the colours of the world.

He didn't really care about the names at the moment, though. Just the colours. They were so wonderful, so beautiful, and then suddenly he remembered that he would never be able to see what colour his parents' eyes were. That hurt, but soon he'd be able to see the colour of his soulmate's eyes. That was something. Charlie couldn't wait to meet him.

He bet he was really nice, and he was sweet and he had good manners and pretty eyes. He'd seen them for a moment, he'd seen the boy for a moment, but it wasn't enough. He needed to know more about him, he wanted to hear his voice again. Preferably not swearing in a foreign language this time. He'd much rather hear that voice say something sweet. But he would just have to wait for that.

The session dragged horrendously, Quill's voice a monotone that set everything within him on edge. He hated her so much that he was tempted to just order her to let him go, though he knew he couldn't. But eventually, a bell rang outside and he was free- he was blissfully free, and he could run off and find that boy who had intrigued him so much and filled his mind for the last hour.

Time to go find him. Of course, he had no idea where to look. He didn't know where the boy would be, or even where anyone would go in this school. He didn't even know the boy's name, or if he'd decided to run away entirely and just go home. Maybe he never wanted to see Charlie again. Charlie wouldn't blame him, because he was an alien and whoever this boy was would be human.

No one would want him as he was. He'd never anticipated finding a soulmate so quickly, he'd thought that by the time he met his, he would know what he was meant to do next. At the moment, he didn't have a clue.

He'd been wandering for a few minutes when footsteps ran up behind him and someone tapped him on the shoulder. Charlie thought it might be his soulmate, but it was just April. "I thought you could use some help. I see Matteusz in the library quite often."

Matteusz. His name was Matteusz. Charlie smiled, trying to commit the pronunciation of the name to memory. Matteusz. "Thank you," he said. He didn't know what he would have done if April hadn't come.

She just smiled and then led him off in the opposite direction, and Charlie eagerly followed. Excited as he was, he couldn't bear to talk on the journey over- all he wanted was to see his soulmate.

The library was quiet and had a sort of musty smell to it that reminded him of home. It wasn't a very good place to talk to someone about why they'd run away from you in the middle of the first session of term, but Charlie didn't care. He wanted to see Matteusz. April hung back a bit, and Charlie was glad for that. She'd proved to be a good friend so far, but his soulmate was his own private business. He wandered further into the library, searching for the face that was etched into his memory.

Sitting on the floor at the end of a row of shelves, far away from the seating area, Charlie finally found Matteusz. He was sitting with his legs crossed and he had a book in his lap; to Charlie, he was perfect already. He looked up as soon as Charlie got close, and he saw his eyes. There weren't words to describe them, not yet, he didn't know what that dark, rich colour was, but he loved it already. What he hadn't quite been expecting was the look of fear that crossed Matteusz's face, and the way he closed his book and stood up like he was about to run again. But he didn't- he just stood there, staring at Charlie.

"Um, h-hello," he said, trying to smile at this boy who looked terrified by his presence. Had he done something wrong? Did he look really bad?

Matteusz didn't respond for a while, as if he was considering what to say. "...Hello," he said eventually, and his voice had a rather nice accent that Charlie wasn't familiar with yet.

"I'm, um-" Should he say that he was sorry if he upset him? He wasn't exactly sorry, just worried that he had. "Should we-" He didn't think he'd ever felt more awkward and nervous in his life.

"I was hoping you would not be a boy," Matteusz said suddenly, the words almost tumbling out of his mouth. "I knew you would be, but a part of me still hoped...my parents will not like this."

"Oh," he said. That was something he hadn't thought he would encounter on this planet. He knew they were intolerant, but he'd thought the Doctor was exaggerating. "That's okay."

"I have no problem with it," Matteusz added hastily. "But my parents will...I panicked. Sorry for running away from you."

"I'm sorry for taking so long to get here," he said. He would tell Quill off about that later. She had no right to keep him in the classroom when he was suffering like that.

"It is okay." Matteusz lowered his folded arms, posture relaxing just a little. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know," Charlie admitted. He had no idea what people did once they met their soulmates. Especially when they had other things to do with their lives. He didn't feel some overwhelming urge to kiss Matteusz or anything.

A slight grin spread over Matteusz's face. "Should we leave school for the day? Get to know each other..."

Charlie shook his head immediately. It was the first day. He had lots of lessons to go to, things to learn, and if Quill knew he'd skipped, he wouldn't have the moral high ground in their inevitable argument.

"I suppose you are right..." Matteusz scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "We should meet after school, then?" Charlie nodded. He wanted to stay afterwards anyway, to get on with working hard at these strange human subjects he probably wouldn't fully understand. He could change that to talking to Matteusz.

"I will see you after school." Matteusz smiled brightly at him, and Charlie felt his heart flutter. The whole world was colourful, but all he wanted to look at was his soulmate.


	3. Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie and Matteusz talk properly for the first time.

As his lessons ticked by, Charlie was starting to seriously regret saying no to skipping school with Matteusz. He couldn't think of anything else but seeing him again- everything was colourful, everything was beautiful, and he wanted to meet the person who had made things that way. It made it very hard to concentrate on anything at all, thinking of the colour of his eyes (brown, April said) and his smile and his soft voice. It was exciting to know that there really was someone who was meant to be destined to be with him.

According to April, Matteusz was Polish, which sounded interesting. Charlie looked it up on his phone when he was sure a teacher wasn't looking- it seemed to be a very beautiful place. He didn't think it was polite to just straight up ask him about where he was from. If he'd walked up to a Quill and told them their home was very pretty, they'd probably stab him. He doubted that humans were so violent, but it was better to be safe about it.

When the day was over, Charlie found himself a place to wait outside the front of the school. Matteusz would no doubt be along soon- he just had to wait. He waited a few minutes, gradually getting more and more afraid that Matteusz just wouldn't come. Why would he? Maybe he just wanted to deny that Charlie existed to his parents. Charlie wouldn't blame him too much.

But then he came running out of the building, looking vaguely annoyed. "Sorry," he called, pausing to catch his breath as he approached Charlie. "Lesson finished late."

"It's okay," he said, smiling. He was trying not to look too much like an idiot, but he was fairly sure he was being unsuccessful. He felt like an idiot, a tongue tied idiot who just had no idea what to say or what to do in this situation.

"You have a very cute smile," Matteusz said suddenly, looking a little sheepish. "I feel like you should know that." Charlie felt heat rise to his cheeks instantly. He didn't know what to say. Matteusz was very, very attractive, but he felt like it was too forwards to say that. They only met this morning. He just grinned, hoping that he didn't look too sheepish. Honestly, he had no idea how human relationships were even supposed to work.

"It's warm, should we sit out here?" Matteusz asked, looking around them. The leaves were sort of going yellow on the trees, looking different to how they had when Charlie had first arrived on Earth, and the days were slightly cooler, but it was still warm.

"That, um, that sounds nice. I think." Charlie knew he was still blushing, and now he knew what colour a blush was, too. Red. It wasn't a very flattering colour and he wasn't at all comfortable with blushing this much, but Matteusz just laughed lightly and started to walk over to a raised slab of stone. Charlie had seen people sitting on them earlier, though to him they looked like they were more meant for housing plants. Maybe they were meant for plants, and people just used them anyway. Humans didn't seem to be terribly respectful of- well, anything.

Matteusz sat down, and then he held out his hand to Charlie. He blinked. Maybe he should have looked up a little more information on human social customs before he came to a public place like this. He didn't know what to do.

Apparently this was funny to Matteusz. He grinned, and then reached down to take Charlie's hand in his own. "Have you not held hands with anyone before...?"

Charlie shook his head. He'd courted only one person in his life, and in all that time they'd never done any of this. It was a political relationship, and Rhodians didn't hold hands, even in normal relationships. "Hmm..." Clearly that wasn't a normal answer, but Matteusz didn't seem to care too much. Thankfully.

"I'm sorry, I've never been with anyone before," he said. A lie, but he'd never been with a human before, so it probably counted.

"Me neither, not really..." Charlie wondered what was meant by that, but he didn't ask. Humans would probably understand.

Charlie looked down at their linked hands. It was a strange feeling. He didn't know yet if he liked holding hands. "I never really thought I'd, um..." He was useless at this. He wanted to say that he never would have imagined he'd meet his soulmate so soon, but his words just fell over each other.

"You never thought you would find your soulmate?" Matteusz raised an eyebrow. "Everyone thinks that. And then everyone finds theirs."

"My parents didn't believe in soulmates," he said. This was a lie he'd prepared to try and fit in a little. "They never found theirs."

"Is hard not to believe in soulmates," Matteusz said, frowning. "Your parents do not sound like they are nice."

Charlie bit his lip, trying his hardest not to snap at Matteusz for that insult to his parents. He wasn't to know they were dead, that they'd died as they'd lived, ever serving their people. Instead he just looked down at his feet, letting out a soft sigh. Matteusz seemed to understand, though, and he squeezed Charlie's hand. "Sorry," he said.

"It's okay," he said, but now he was thinking about how his mother had died and how he'd seen it happen and how the Shadowkin king's eyes had turned to him next. "You didn't know."

"I still should not have said a thing like that," Matteusz insisted. "Am sorry." He leaned over and rested his head gently on Charlie's shoulder.

Charlie just nodded. "I still know nothing about you," he said. "Your name is Matteusz, you're my soulmate, and your eyes are brown."

"That is all true," he said, laughing. "I moved here from Poland almost a year ago. Was much different there, but I am glad I came here."

"I'm glad you came too," Charlie said, and for the first time, he was glad that he was on Earth too. Before today, it had only seemed like an unforgiving place, full of people who hated him or other people. There was no kindness anywhere, it seemed, only profit and exploitation.

Matteusz didn't answer, just made a sort of thoughtful sound, then looked up at Charlie. "Would you mind if I kissed you?"

"What?" He looked at Matteusz, and he seemed to be completely serious in his request. "Y-you're very nice, Matteusz, but I- I only met you this morning."

"I suppose." Matteusz shrugged. "We are soulmates, though." He grinned. "Any time you change your mind, make sure you are letting me know."

"I will," he said. He did like Matteusz, and whenever he grinned, Charlie's insides felt all churned up. He really liked Matteusz, but kissing him after talking for a couple of minutes seemed like a very bad idea. He would have to take him up on the offer at some point, though. Kissing someone was something he'd barely even thought about, if he was honest.

"I know nothing about you, either," Matteusz said. This would be the hardest part of this; he couldn't tell Matteusz he was an alien now, it was too early for him to be trusted, but if he told him too late, the trust would be broken. "You're Charlie, you're very shy and your eyes are blue."

"That's, eh, that's about right." He bit his lip, wondering what else to say. "I...like to draw sometimes. I think I'm quite good at it."

"I'd like to see sometimes," Matteusz said with a smile, and Charlie wondered if it would give anything away if he showed him the drawings of Rhodia. He could just pretend it was a place he'd made up- after all, he looked human. There was no way that Matteusz would know. "Do you want to go walk somewhere?" Matteusz shifted a little on the bench. "It is cold to sit here. And maybe a little wet..."

Charlie nodded. "I don't know much of London," he admitted. He had tried to go outside a few times, but it was so crowded on just about every street and so loud that he just preferred to stay inside.

"I do not know too much of it," Matteusz admitted. "And everything looks different when it is not black and white." He had a point there. Charlie wasn't sure if he could even recognise his way home.

"The bright colours are so distracting," he said with a grin. "I made the mistake of looking at the sky earlier and it's so pretty when it isn't grey."

"Is grey a lot of the time," Matteusz pointed out. "Your English weather is terrible. In Poland, there was lot more blue."

"It's blue now," he said, looking up and instantly getting distracted by it again. It was so beautiful to see all these colours around him.

"I like the leaves more than the sky." Matteusz nodded towards a nearby patch of trees, sliding off the stone thing and pulling Charlie away by the hand as well. "They have many colours." They were a different colour to what he had been told leaves were on Rhodia and on Earth, which confused him, but he didn't say so. Never before had he wanted someone to like him quite as much as he wanted Matteusz to like him. He didn't want to give a bad impression.

Matteusz bent down and plucked a large leaf off of the ground, studying it. "What is the colour of this, do you think? Is hard to tell..."

"Um..." He had only been able to put names to set colours for the last few hours, and that hadn't been his priority, mostly. "Is that yellow?"

"Maybe. Yellow or orange." Matteusz reached over and stuck the leaf behind Charlie's ear, grinning. "Now it is accessory. Suits you."

Charlie laughed and brought his hand up to the leaf. "What colour is my hair called?" He asked. It wasn't yellow, but it wasn't brown or orange or anything.

Matteusz frowned, reaching out to run his hand through Charlie's hair. That felt nice... "Is called blond, I think."

They started walking, their hands still linked. It wasn't the way back to the flat, he thought, but Charlie didn't mind. He'd just spent a week in that flat. "Your hair is brown, but it's a different brown to your eyes."

"Is it a nice brown?" Charlie looked up and studied Matteusz's hair, and then he nodded. 

"Yes. Everything about you is a nice colour." Charlie was satisfied to see a blush spreading across Matteusz's cheeks. It felt good to compliment him, good in some way that felt different to when he spoke to others. "You're cute."

"Not as cute as you," Matteusz insisted. Charlie just had to accept that he wasn't going to beat Matteusz when it came to calling him cute.

"Where are we going?" He asked. He presumed that Matteusz knew, because he definitely didn't. Honestly, he didn't even know how he would get home, but with Matteusz he didn't really care.

"Local park," came the immediate answer. "Lots of pretty trees, and they sell ice cream. Ice cream is good."

Charlie nodded. It sounded nice, though he didn't really know what ice cream was. From Matteusz's tone, however, he could tell that he was probably meant to know what it was, so he didn't question it. "I don't have any money," he pointed out quickly. He'd made his own lunch at home, and he hadn't thought there would be any need for money.

"I will buy one and we can share," he said with another smile. Charlie was starting to reconsider his scepticism about Matteusz truly being his perfect match.

"Thank you," he said, squeezing Matteusz's hand like had been done to him earlier. That seemed to be the right thing to do, because Matteusz smiled.

"Which subjects do you do?" Matteusz asked. "I want to know far more about you than I do now. I do Physics, Sociology and History. I also do Polish, but lots of people think it does not count."

"Why would it not count? If you can speak it, you may as well gain a qualification in it." Charlie smiled. "We share two subjects- Physics, obviously, and History as well. I do English Literature... There's so many fascinating books on this world."

Matteusz nodded, but the strange look Charlie received gave away that he'd heard the slip up. Charlie didn't know what to say. Did he pretend it didn't happen? Did he lie and cover up? He could even tell the truth.

"I, um, I mean IN this world. There's a lot of interesting books in this world, and I want to read them all. I'm not saying I've been to any other worlds, that would be mad..." He really shouldn't lie, but Matteusz would think he was mad if he just announced he was an alien on their first date.

Matteusz just laughed and squeezed his hand. "I know what you mean," he said. "You do not have to be so worried, I am not just going to leave my soulmate before I get to know them."

"O-okay. Sorry." Charlie laughed a little sheepishly, and bit his lip. He needed to relax. Matteusz was not going to assume he was an alien, no matter what he said. Matteusz would assume that he was normal and human and not hiding multiple huge secrets from him, and that was half of the problem. Because he was doing all of that.

"Let's go buy ice cream," Matteusz suggested, clearly sensing Charlie's awkwardness. Charlie smiled and nodded, fairly optimistic that their first meeting was a success. He was worried about the alien problem, but it was okay. Matteusz was nice, and when it came to that, Charlie was sure he'd understand.


	4. Learning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie goes home and texts Matteusz.

Charlie went home with his body feeling light, full of warm air and the soft, creamy taste of ice cream. He couldn't believe he'd never had some before. Matteusz lived in a different direction to him and had offered to walk him home, but Charlie refused. It was getting late, and he didn't want Matteusz to end up out in the cold.

He did have Matteusz's phone number now, though, and he could spend the whole night texting him if he wanted. Well...maybe not all night. They had college in the morning, after all. But the prospect of talking to Matteusz, getting to know him more, it was just so exciting. He'd refused to kiss Matteusz again, and he had no regrets about that because he wanted to know him before he got into something like that. Give it a week or two, and then he'd be far more open to doing things with Matteusz. Who knew what sort of things, honestly. Humans had such odd romantic customs.

He'd heard that they liked to put their body parts inside each other, which was not something he fancied doing at all. That sounded terrible, actually, and the prospect of that was why he was so hesitant to take the relationship he had with Matteusz any further. Presumably the whole body part thing felt good, but still...it was just odd. Kissing was just about manageable.

He'd never really taken part in anything romantic on Rhodia. There were plenty of people who were interested, but he could never commit to even meeting those people. He hated even talking to them. His parents had hated him for it. All of those people had just been grey. Plain, boring grey. Matteusz, though- he was colourful in so many ways.

He knew that it was only because he could see in colour now that the other people looked grey in comparison. But if they were still alive, he was sure they would have been just as dull compared to Matteusz.

When he got home, Quill was sat in the kitchen drinking coffee, as she usually was. There was a stack of student work in front of her, covered in an alarming amount of red pen. He knew that humans had a strange hatred for Maths, but he hadn't realised that this extended to an incompetence. He had to admire Quill's efficiency, though. This was the first day and she was already telling her A-Level students that they were failing.

"Leave me alone, Charles," she said, after he'd been standing and watching for a few seconds. "Grading sixty frankly awful pieces of work is giving me enough of a headache without you being here as well. God, this is the first time I've ever wished teenagers were more like you...at least you have a basic knowledge of physics."

"Matteusz said he was worried because he didn't hand his work in," he said. They'd spent a little time talking about school, and Matteusz had told him about how he loved Physics but he found it difficult and he'd put hours into the summer task but had been unable to hand it in.

"Why? What possible excuse does he have? Do you know, these humans have had almost three months off school since they finished their last set of exams? And in three months that lazy boy didn't have a chance to do his homework?"

"He left the lesson before you collected it in," he snapped. He really did hate her attitude towards everything. She was so negative. "He's my soulmate, remember?"

"Ah yes, the one who was so upset when he found that you were his soulmate that he had to go and lament how the rest of his life would be wasted on you."

"He did not go and 'lament' anything," Charlie said firmly. "I went to speak to him and he was very happy. We went to the park together and had ice cream. It was fun. Not that you would know anything about fun. Don't say anything negative about Matteusz again. He doesn't deserve it."

"I don't think you should order me to do that," she said. "I'm his teacher, and if he turns out to be terrible at my subject I can't just lie to him."

"Whilst we are in this house, you will not say anything negative about Matteusz. You may say what you like about his classwork at school, but you will not insult his character. Is that understood?"

"I have no choice but to understand," she said. "Now leave me to the marking and go fawn over your boyfriend where I can't hear you doing it."

Charlie stalked off upstairs, his good mood thoroughly dampened by that little encounter with Quill. Matteusz didn't deserve whatever she said about him. As soon as he was in his room, he got his phone out. Already, there was a text from Matteusz. It read 'Hi :) It's Matteusz'.

That cheered him up again, just a little. Charlie had to frown at the colon followed by a bracket, though- a quick google search told him it was supposed to be a smiley face. He was utterly out of his depth in this, that much was clear. He didn't know how to respond, if he was meant to put a smiley face in too, or even if he was meant to reply at all. He would be given away as an alien in no time at all. In the end he took a deep breath, paused, and then just wrote out what sounded right. 'Hi :) Charlie here, obviously.' That didn't seem too bad.

He sent it and got a response almost immediately. That made him happy, for some reason. 'Did you get back okay? :) I got confused because my door isn't grey anymore'.

'I arrived home fine, thank you.' Charlie sent that, and then frowned, wondering if he should send another smiley face. Maybe it was tradition. Considering it, he quickly tapped in the symbols and hit send again.

'I don't think my parents suspect anything. You? :)' Charlie sighed at the sight of the response. He should probably mention that his parents weren't around anymore, but that would lead to being asked who looked after him now.

'Everything's fine,' he sent, and decided to change the subject. 'You missed the homework we were set in physics, shall I send you the work?'

'We were set homework already? :(' Charlie realised without looking this one up that it was meant to be a sad face, because it was the opposite of the smiley one. Sort of.

'Yes :( she seems really mean, she wouldn't let me look for you.'

'I guessed that...send me the work through Skype if there's a lot of it :)' Charlie blinked at that message, puzzling over what exactly Skype was.

'She just wants us to research vectors :) she said to look at revision sites, I think.' Hopefully he could work out what Skype was before it came up again. Matteusz might get suspicious if his replies were very slow while he looked stuff up. He didn't know the norms.

'Okay, thank you X' Charlie frowned, wondering what the X meant. Presumably something positive. He looked it up, and it said it meant a kiss. Charlie looked it up again in a different phrase, and then again, and each time it said the same thing. Matteusz had sent him a kiss, but only in sentiment. His face felt warm.

He contemplated sending one back, thumb hovering over the send button with nothing but that little X in the box, and after a few moments of deliberation, he sent it. Matteusz was his soulmate. He didn't need to be afraid of Matteusz thinking he was too strange to talk to, or so forward that he was pushing it too much. He didn't need to fear that, because Matteusz would be nice to him anyway. They were meant to be together, he could send a metaphorical kiss to him whenever he wanted to.


	5. Late Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie and Matteusz talk a little more.

He didn't get any more texts for a while, and Charlie found himself almost missing them. The next one, it turned out, came at about half past eleven at night, and it simply read 'U up? Can't sleep :/'

Charlie looked up what the new symbol meant, but he couldn't get a direct answer. Was Matteusz irritated about something? 'I'm up. Are you okay? X' Charlie decided he liked sending the kisses. It showed a certain amount of sentiment.

'Rather be actually kissing u than just trying to sleep...can't stop thinking of u,' came the swift reply back.

Charlie didn't know what to say to something like that. He'd spent the last few hours thinking almost non stop about Matteusz, but he almost didn't want to say so. It was embarrassing that he couldn't concentrate on anything. Although...Matteusz had admitted to it, therefore so could he. 'You've been on my mind all day,' he sent back, and then texted another kiss for good measure.

'I'm sorry I ran away,' the reply read, 'i can't imagine what that looked like for you.' All the anxiety caused in that hour and a bit still burned in the back of his mind, but Charlie didn't want to say that. He didn't want to hurt Matteusz.

'Don't worry about it.' There had been worry before, but that part of the day was all over now. 'Think about something happier.'

'In the back of my mind, my soulmate always felt so far away.' Matteusz didn't realise how right he was when he wrote that. Until recently, Charlie had been very, very far away. 'But now ur here. It's nice.'

'It is nice. I like seeing colours, although I realise all of my old art looks wrong.' Charlie cast a rueful glance over the drawings on his wall, colours barely visible in the dark but wrong nonetheless.

'I really love ur eyes.' The text was so blunt, so short it came as a sort of surprise. Charlie knew he was blushing again. Matteusz was too wonderful to be a real person, he was sure.

'Yours are lovely as well,' he replied, because they were. That deep, rich brown was utterly captivating to him.

'Yours are like the sea' Matteusz wrote. Charlie wondered briefly what the sea looked like on Earth. On Rhodia, they lived far away from the ocean but they still went every year. He hadn't had the chance to see an ocean on Earth yet.

'Yours are a very pretty brown. I cannot describe it as beautifully as you describe my eyes, but yours are lovely.' Charlie had stopped worrying about his texts sounding weird, and he really hoped that he wasn't making any mistakes. He felt like, even if he did get it wrong (which was very likely), Matteusz wouldn't really mind. He'd laugh, perhaps, and then gently correct him. Or maybe he'd ignore it entirely so Charlie didn't get embarrassed.

'Most people would say chocolate brown but that's cliche,' Matteusz replied. Charlie wasn't entirely sure about the concept of cliches yet.

'I don't think I've seen the real colour of chocolate yet.' Charlie sent it, but he felt as if their conversation was slowing, and he was very tired by now. They had lessons in the morning and he couldn't afford to not pay attention.

'Brown,' came the simple response, followed a few moments later with 'getting tired, is it okay if i go sleep?'

'Of course. Good night Xxx' He'd seen online that sending more than one kiss to someone was acceptable if you were close. He liked to think he was going to be close with Matteusz, because that was the point of soulmates.

'niiight xxxx,' was the reply, and Charlie smiled when he saw it. Matteusz was cute when he was sleepy...he hoped he got to see that in person some day.

Still smiling, he put his phone away from where he slept and closed his eyes, his gaze drifting towards the Cabinet as always before he tried to sleep. Sleep, though, didn't seem to want to come easily. He stared at the cabinet, and kept staring, and kept staring. Sleep still didn't come.

He checked his phone, and it was now one in the morning. He had six hours until he had to get up, but he still wasn't tired enough to sleep. He felt irritable and there was a strange taste in his mouth. Matteusz would be asleep by now, so there was no point texting him. He would just have to wait out this night alone. He'd never had a problem like this before...

He'd spent many nights being entirely sleepless after he'd left Rhodia, but since he'd come to Earth he had mostly been fine. Exhaustion after days of learning about the culture and the geography made it very easy to sleep, and today was no different, but he just couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Matteusz, or looking around and noticing the subtle colours that shaded everything even in the moonlight. It was different, incredibly so, and also incredibly beautiful. But it really wasn't helping him sleep.

He got out of bed and moved towards the Cabinet, touching its base for a moment before moving past. It felt so strange to have his people's greatest religious artifact in his bedroom. It felt wrong, even. But he didn't trust Quill enough to put it anywhere else. It wasn't like she could do anything with it, but still. It was his, not hers. She wouldn't get her hands on it.

He made his way down to the lower part of his bedroom and picked a book up out of his bag. He may as well make the most of this insomnia. But then he found that he couldn't even properly concentrate on his book, though. He just stared at the pages and got distracted, time and time again.

He got up again and walked over to the window. Looking up at the sky in London was so sad, because the light pollution meant he couldn't see any stars. And even at this time, nothing was quiet. Sometimes he wanted to tell the whole world to just shut up and let him think for a minute or two. Was that really so much to ask?

He sat down on the floor, crossed his legs, and pressed his forehead against the glass. Everything felt wrong, even though today should have been wonderful. It was wonderful, but he felt strange and ill and something was wrong. It was probably just the...the newness of this whole situation. New planet, new people, new colours. So many new colours. It was just too much to think about. He needed to relax, he needed to clear his mind. He needed to take a moment to breathe and stop worrying about everything. He closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears.

That was better. Just darkness, and the faint rush of his heartbeat in his ears. Calm. He would be fine. He would get used to this. He could deal with this. Matteusz could help him. He could take each day at a time and he would be okay, he was sure. He was good at his subjects so he didn't have to worry. He had Matteusz and April, so he didn't have to worry too much about having no friends.

Charlie could be human, and he could have a soulmate. There was no need to panic, not today. This world wasn't ending. Hopefully, this world would never end, because his soulmate was in it.

**Author's Note:**

> What should I stop doing? Writing new fanfics!
> 
> Am I going to stop? Of course not!


End file.
